Consumer Reports submitted testimony to the California Assembly Privacy committee in support of AB 2564, a bill that CR co-sponsors with TechEquity.
Surveillance pricing, also sometimes referred to as “personalized” pricing, is when a company uses personal data that they’ve gathered about a consumer—like data about their online search history, their real time location, or inferences about family structure, health conditions, or income—to set the price of a product or determine the discount offered to a consumer.
What does the bill do?
AB 446 would prohibit the use of a consumer’s personal data gathered by electronic surveillance technology to set a customized price for a tangible good. This includes, for example, data about a consumer’s web-browsing history, their realtime location, inferences about their income, family size, health conditions, and more. The bill also protects transparently offered discounts for commonly understood group discounts, discounts offered through loyalty and rewards programs, and discounts any consumer could potentially obtain.
For more details about the bill and examples of surveillance pricing, see the testimony linked above.